Policy on Portfolio management

Contact: IT Services, Pernilla Looman

This document has been reviewed 2025.

1 Introduction

Pursuant to Stockholm University’s Digitalisation plan for 2023–2026 (SU FV-0431-23), the University shall take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation in order to create added value and enhance the quality of education and research.
IT Services has an important mission to support the University’s digital development by delivering modern, university-wide IT solutions and professional services based on the needs of the organisation. Efficient, fit-for-purpose digitalisation that supports the University’s core operations thus demands strategic and collegial governance of day-to-day IT operations and management of new development needs.
On 15 April 2021, the President adopted a new portfolio management model for operational development at Stockholm University as it relates to IT (SU FV-1339-21). The ambition behind the portfolio management model is to be able to reach holistic, quality-assured decisions concerning the scope and prioritisation of university-wide development resources in line with the University’s operational planning, so that we can digitalise processes, meet the long-term needs of students and staff and achieve the University’s strategic objectives. The term portfolio management describes a governance model that brings together the strategic governance and operational management of the organisation and contributes to prioritisation based on benefits to the organisation and steering towards the desired effects.
The present policy regulates the approach to the University’s strategic work on operational development as it relates to IT, and how IT operations are to be governed and coordinated.
The policy is also intended to contribute to establishing joint principles for portfolio management at university-wide level. The policy, which only describes the most basic structures and principles for portfolio management, is intended for the managers and staff at Stockholm University who are represented in the model.
In addition to the policy, there are also other documents to support portfolio management that will have a greater degree of flexibility over time.

2 Principles

The success of portfolio management rests on robust collegial cooperation with representatives of education, research and University Administration. While the representatives who participate in portfolio management have various roles, they share a common assignment to steer the University’s development towards the common good.
By applying portfolio management, we create the conditions to choose in a systematic and strategic manner those initiatives that offer the greatest benefits to the University and to disregard those that do not contribute to realising operational goals or desired effects.
The point of departure for portfolio management is operational development as it relates to IT, but it shall also be used for overall governance of changes to infrastructure and technical conditions within the university-wide IT environment.

There are four principles to portfolio management:

• Principle 1: Ensure that resources for operational development involving IT are prioritised based on the University’s strategies and the needs of the organisation.
  The University’s operational goals and organisational needs shall always determine which investments are made. If this principle is to be upheld, resources must be committed to mapping, analysing and interpreting the needs of the organisation, and resources must be secured for implementing planned developments.
• Principle 2: Create the conditions for steering operational development involving IT towards the desired operational effects.
  Focusing on effects and benefits is key to portfolio management. Development work and investments must lead to benefits for the organisation and these benefits must guide portfolio managers when they make decisions about prioritisation. By focusing on the effects we wish to achieve rather than systems or technologies, we increase both the likelihood that resources will be correctly prioritised and the ability to evaluate whether an investment has achieved the desired results.
• Principle 3: Facilitate continuous prioritisation from a holistic perspective. Our combined experience of operational development work involving IT tells us that the ability of
  portfolio managers to constantly reprioritise is crucial to achieving the desired
  results. The content of portfolios must keep pace with developments in the organisation’s priorities.
• Principle 4: Create clarity and predictability regarding the University’s long-term ambition for operational development involving IT.
  By spending time monitoring, analysing and planning the entire portfolio from a holistic perspective, we create the conditions for the University's Senior Management Team to obtain a complete picture of the organisation’s needs and in the long term to make the necessary resources available over a number of years.
  

3 Sub-portfolio management

Portfolio management at the University encompasses the central IT environment and the development of application-related and infrastructure-related IT services that benefit multiple departments or offices within the University. It also includes capturing, investigating and dealing with new initiatives and needs.
The sub-portfolio is a key concept in portfolio management. A sub-portfolio is a delimited area that in practice is managed separately from the rest of the portfolio. Essentially, a sub-portfolio is based on the area of operations being supported, its various stakeholders and the portfolio’s constituent technologies. Although they are separate entities, sub-portfolios are interdependent and demand constant collaboration. In addition to portfolio management, work with sub-portfolios to realise prioritised investments includes delivery models based on the nature of the assignment. The portfolio is the sum of the sub-portfolios it contains.
Through the various sub-portfolios, the portfolio must create an overview of ongoing operations and the IT environment, ongoing change initiatives and any correlations and dependencies, as well as providing a systematic assessment and decision-making process both prior to and during ongoing improvement work.

4 Decision-making structure

Portfolio management supplements the University’s Decision-making and Delegation Rules and as such its primary function is to support and prepare formal decisions. Formal decisions are always reached in accordance with the current Decision-making and Delegation Rules by, for example, the President, University Director or the Head of IT Services. The portfolio management model includes preparatory roles and forums at strategic, tactical and operative level in each sub-portfolio. Sub-portfolios that directly support specific academic areas must have representatives from those areas. Sub-portfolios focused on education must also have student representation in accordance with the University’s Regulations for student influence.
The Portfolio Office at IT Services has a greater coordinating responsibility for ensuring that initiatives that cross the boundaries between sub-portfolios, or completely new ideas that have no natural home in any sub-portfolio, are evaluated and follow the Decision-making and Delegation Rules. Where appropriate, the ambition is to align decision-making and ensure that each initiative is quality-assured before any implementation begins.

5 Preconditions

There are three fundamental preconditions for the day-to-day management of portfolios. These preconditions are complementary and together they constitute a whole.

• Precondition 1: The mandate to reprioritise is delegated as close to operations as possible
  Escalating decisions takes time as people at each new level must familiarise themselves with the background to the decision. By mandating someone as close to the operational level as possible, expensive lead times can be cut. That said, delegating a mandate must never compromise transparency.
• Precondition 2: Overall priorities and objectives are clear. Clear objectives are a prerequisite for delegation. Only when we have clear common priorities and objectives can delegation lead to the correct decision.

• Precondition 3: The portfolio is planned and followed up transparently and continuously
  To ensure that the portfolio’s management forum has sufficient insight into the ideas and activities awaiting implementation, this information and associated budget must be made available. By maintaining a high level of transparency, we create the necessary basis for decision-making and build trust, which is a prerequisite for making decisions to deal with any deviations from plan.

6 Responsibility and follow-up

Representatives of academic areas for the whole portfolio and for each sub-portfolio are appointed by each academic area board for the same mandate period as the board’s members. Representation from University Administration is ensured in dialogue with each head of office. Student representatives for portfolio’s related to education are appointed by the Stockholm University Student Union (SUS).
Staff working within a portfolio are responsible for acquainting themselves with current policy and the subordinate model description.
The Policy on Portfolio Management has been adopted by the President and is valid until further notice. Overall responsibility for ensuring that work is managed in accordance with this policy, and that the policy and subordinate support documents are administered and followed up on an annual basis, rest with the Head of IT Services.